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Greenwashing in the clothing industry and its impact on the corporate image of consumers in Germany
(2023)
With issues like climate change and the pollution of our planet, more and more clothing companies are following the trend of a sustainable marketing strategy. Greenwashing is often associated with that, as not all companies are honest about their statements. This study examines how greenwashing by a company in the clothing industry impacts the corporate image of 18 to 30-year-old adults in Germany. Studies regarding sustainability, consumer behaviour towards sustainable products, the behaviour in case of greenwashing incidents, and the identification of greenwashing are investigated. For the analysis, online survey data of 244 Hochschule Furtwangen University study participants are examined. The descriptive study provides information about the behaviour of consumers regarding sustainable clothing and their behaviour when it comes to greenwashing. It was found that consumers tend not to consider sustainability when buying clothes. Very few inform themselves about sustainability, and sustainable labels do not seem to influence their shopping decisions. The image of the consumer about the company involved in greenwashing appears to deteriorate. In addition, the willingness to keep buying from the company seems to be stopped or reduced for the majority. A weak positive correlation was found between consumer behaviour concerning the topics of sustainability and greenwashing. It can be summarised that the dishonest behaviour of clothing companies can harm their consumers' corporate image and brand loyalty.
Precedent research in human resources management has put forward the challenges of recognizing the appropriate methods to unlock employees’ potential. However, it has been proven that leaders and managers can establish a culture where employees can unlock their potential with the proper understanding of neuroscience and emotional intelligence. This research has shown that cognitive skills, which are necessary for a good job performance, can be further developed due to neuroplasticity. Furthermore, understanding human needs and emotions can help people improve their work and life experience. This research also studies the relationship between employees’ well-being and job performance. Moreover, how emotional intelligence influences the company’s working atmosphere with its staff will be, with the support of literature research, thoroughly investigated and further analysed. Based on findings of various studies, attributes such as empathy, compassion, and kindness play a predominant role and indicate an underlying connection between motivation and job performance. All in all, questions such as how health impacts job performance and how neuroscience research and understanding human emotions shift the approach to motivating people will be further discussed. This research also questions what attributes a company leader should have to build trust with the employees and encourage them to work better. Therefore, this research takes a closer look into the exemplary leadership approach and explains why communication and purpose in the company matter when unlocking human potential. In addition, it highlights the effect of experiencing stress and fear at work and the remarkable impact of positive emotions such as kindness, gratitude, and compassion. Thus, with this understanding, this research acknowledges profoundly the positive influence of having a trustworthy and empathetic leader in the company. It fundamentally shows that working in a healthy and inclusive working culture, where psychological safety is ensured, one can, in fact, unlock the potential of employees to work better and feel good about themselves.
The impact of store atmosphere elements on the purchase behaviour and emotions of customers has an important significance in modern marketing. How to design and conceptualize a store atmosphere in such a way that it provides an unforgettable experience for the customer and entices him or her to arouse an interest in the store environment is one of the most fundamental concerns merchants and marketers must ask and think through these days – likewise, the role of culture in connection with store atmosphere is necessary to understand. The goal of this paper is to answer the question on how behavioural and emotional responses to store atmospheric elements such as visual, aural, olfactory, tactile, social, exterior design, interior design and layout & design differ across individualist and collectivist cultures. A cross-cultural analysis between Germans and non-Germans is made in respect to the posed question. A quantitative online survey was conducted, in which a total of 99 valid participants took part, of which 57 were Germans and 42 were non-Germans. This research extended the study of Barros et al. (2019) and added two more separate store atmospheric elements which are the general exterior design and the general interior design. The data was then analyzed, and the findings were ultimately presented. The findings showed that overall store atmosphere elements have similar emotional and behavioural effects on individualist and collectivist cultures with the exception of the general exterior design element, where a significant difference was found. This paper gives a comprehensive overview on the importance of store atmospheric elements in retail and the comparison between Germany which acts as a country that scored relatively high on the Individualism dimension of Hofstede’s national culture model and the countries Turkey, Russia, Portugal, Albania, Bosnia, Romania, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Iraq which serve as a union of cultures that performed high on the Collectivism dimension. Additional research on the topic needs to be done on how culture affects shopper’s emotional and behavioural responses.
The bachelor thesis investigates the development and impact of electronic payment methods, specifically concerning the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer preferences, and the future of such methods. The primary objective of this study was to examine the effect of the pandemic and security concerns on consumer behaviour towards electronic payments. That was achieved through a literature review and a survey of 605 participants. The survey results indicate an increasing trend among consumers towards cashless payments due to their numerous advantages over cash transactions, including enhanced hygiene, quicker processing times, and improved security. As such, users exhibit a high level of comfort and convenience with electronic payment methods and are generally rarely worried about the security of their data. The study further reveals that electronic payment methods are gaining popularity worldwide, particularly mobile payments. The pandemic and improved security measures have led to a notable increase in their use, which is expected to continue to rise. Based on these findings, the study suggests that digital payments are the way forward and that these methods will be further developed to improve user-friendliness and security.
Einfluss des Klimawandels auf die deutsche Weinindustrie - Zukunftsanalyse für die deutschen Winzer
(2022)
Die vorliegende Bachelorarbeit gibt einen Überblick über die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels auf die deutsche Weinindustrie. Das Ziel war es, die zukünftigen Risiken wie auch Chancen für die deutschen Winzer zu ermitteln und anhand der Ergebnisse Handlungsempfehlungen für die zukünftige Weinindustrie zu entwickeln. Um die Forschungsfragen zu beantworten, wurde eine Szenario- Analyse durchgeführt, welche sich an den deutschen Winzern orientiert. Dabei wurden die Einflüsse betrachtet und anhand dieser wurden unterschiedliche Zukunftsprojektionen erstellt. Die Szenario-Analyse zeigte, dass die deutsche Weinindustrie bei den aktuellen Entwicklungen des Klimawandels deutlich als Gewinner hervorgeht. Dennoch müssen Winzer und andere Akteure der Wein- industrie heute bereits wichtige Entscheidungen treffen und sich den Bedingun- gen anpassen um in der Zukunft die entstehen Chancen nutzen zu können.
Als einer der größten Automobilzulieferer weltweit, ist auch die ZF Friedrichshafen AG (ZF) ein Unternehmen, das sich maßgeblich von der Transformation in Richtung E- Mobilität beeinflusst sieht. Gerade die Erweiterung des Produktportfolios um Komponenten für die E-Mobilität, wie beispielsweise dem elektrischen Motor oder der Leistungselektronik, bringt eine Vielzahl an internen Herausforderungen für die Organisation mit sich. Eine dieser Herausforderungen ist die Schaffung von Transparenz hinsichtlich der zukünftig benötigten Ressourcen, sowie die effiziente Nutzung der vorhandenen Ressourcen im globalen Produktentstehungsprozess. Ziel ist es einerseits das konventionelle Produktportfolio weiterzuentwickeln und andererseits die Entwicklung neuer Anwendungen weiter vorantreiben zu können, die das Unternehmen auf lange Sicht wettbewerbsfähig halten sollen.
Die Erstellung dieser Arbeit wurde dabei im Rahmen der operativen Planung der Division E des ZF-Konzerns angestoßen und soll die Entscheidungsfindung in der Budgetierung für diesen Planungsprozess maßgeblich verbessern. Konkret befasst sich diese Arbeit daher mit der Entwicklung eines potenziellen Konzepts, das neben der Erstellung eines Forecast Modells (im Deutschen: „Vorschaurechnung“) auch die Implementierung eines Regelprozesses am Beispiel der ZF Friedrichshafen AG vorsieht. Grundlage des Forecasts bildet ein qualitativer Ansatz, dessen Ziel es ist für jeden Produkttyp, der sich im Projektportfolio einer Organisation befindet, eine Schablone des Ressourcenbedarfs jeder beteiligten Funktion für ein tendenziell einfaches/mittleres und schweres Projekt zu generieren. Die Schablone soll dabei den Ressourcenbedarf über die gesamte Projektlaufzeit hinweg betrachten und abhängig von den unterschiedlichen Phasen im Projekt ausgefüllt werden. Durch die Klassifizierung aller relevanten Projekte einer Organisation in eine Komplexitätsstufe entsteht ausgehend von den Projektstart Daten ein aggregiertes Gesamtkapazitätengebirge, dass den Gesamtressourcenbedarf bis zu einem spezifischen Zeitpunkt abbilden kann. Das erstellte Konzept ist dabei aus den Erkenntnissen einer wissenschaftlichen Literaturrecherche und den Anforderungen aus der Praxis resultiert und soll durch eine Evaluierung mögliche weitere Verbesserungspotentiale für die Anwendung in anderen Organisationen prüfen.
Concerns about mental health and the declining rate of body satisfaction have increased interest in topics such as diversity, body positivity, and inclusion in recent years. Thus, the suggestion is that companies can communicate deep meanings through advertising images and strengthen their brand identity. This bachelor thesis proposes the application of two theoretical frameworks: Esch’s "Brand Steering Wheel" for identifying the brand identity, and the framework of “Visual Grammar” for analyzing images in advertising. The aim is to find out if diversity in advertising can improve brand identity.
Firstly, this work intends to offer an overall understanding of advertising, brand identity, and multimodality. For this, previous academic literature is used to establish a theoretical basis for understanding. Secondly, certain problems that lack inclusion in traditional advertising are analyzed. Thirdly, with the help of the theoretical framework, the brand identity is analyzed using the brand steering wheel. Additionally, Kress and van Leeuwen’s framework of visual grammar is used to examine images for their meaning.
The findings indicate that there is significant theoretical and practical evidence to suggest that the application of diversity in advertising campaigns would be an effective strategy to build a strong brand identity. The identities and relationships indicated in the photos between viewers and models represent desired attributes that may be identified with the advertiser's products. The brand may be picked if the viewers see that it is correctly represented.
An average investor trying to allocate his wealth among multiple assets ideally has nearly infinite possibilities to do so. However, asset allocation strategies try to facilitate this process. Nevertheless, no consensus exists on which strategy is ideal and yields the best performance. Therefore, this paper aims to determine an ideal asset allocation strategy for an average investor by comparing two asset allocation strategies.
The focus is on comparing the practical application of Markowitz’s Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), a sophisticated asset allocation strategy, with an equally weighted asset allocation, namely the 1/N strategy. The past performance of these two strategies is compared with the help of a calculation example based on historical data. The quantitative analysis covers three time periods of different lengths between 1991 and 2022. Also, the strategies are applied to portfolios with different amounts of assets during these periods. Although the existing literature is very controversial concerning the performance of the two strategies, this research shows a clear result. Compared to the 1/N strategy, this study’s findings show an outperformance of the MPT strategy during every period and each portfolio combination. However, the difference in performance regarding return and risk is minimal in most scenarios and would not significantly affect an average investor who invests over a long-term horizon.
Mergers and acquisitions are effective strategies for corporations to accomplish their financial and strategic goals. They can, for example, assist businesses in increasing economies of scale or decreasing rivalry. The annual growth in the value of all mergers and acquisitions highlights the continued trend of M&As. Researchers differ on the role of national culture in post-merger integration. Some argue that national culture significantly influences post-merger integration, making it more difficult to create synergies. Other scholars argue that national culture should be viewed as a competitive advantage that leads to a more positive M&A outcome. National culture is not a major factor in post-merger integration, and other variables, like the firm's desire to adapt and corporate culture, dictate its complexity. Another viewpoint on the influence of national culture is that it relies on the level of connectivity, which means that the more tightly a firm integrates with another, the more probable cultural disputes develop. Therefore, this study aims to look at a wider prospect of the impact of national culture on post-merger integration. The research methodology used in this research work is the qualitative research design which involves a naturalistic study intended to collect, analyze, and interpret non-numerical to understand individual opinions, phenomena, concepts, or experiences. Primary and secondary data were used in this investigation. Semi-structured interviews were used to acquire primary data from the research sample. On the other hand, secondary data for the research study was gathered from existing sources such as prior study results, journal articles, reports, and other recorded literature on the role of national culture in post-merger integration. The results of this research were categorized in the form of the three themes, which forms the basis central basis of the research.
Durch die weite Verbreitung von Smartphones wächst das Potenzial des mobilen E-Learning-Marktes. Auch in der Branche des Fremdspracherwerbs sind massive Veränderungen erkennbar: Das Erlernen einer neuen Sprache ist nicht länger an physische Klassenzimmer gekoppelt, sondern kann nun auch durch die Nutzung von mobilen Applikationen (Apps) praktiziert werden. Auffallend ist jedoch, dass Sprachlern-App-Anbieter, wie auch die Jicki GmbH, Schwierigkeiten haben, ihre Kunden an die App zu binden. Das Ziel dieser wissenschaftlichen Arbeit ist die Identifikation von
motivationsbedingten Faktoren, die das Engagement bei Sprachlern-Apps beeinflussen.
Aufgrund mangelnder Datenlage zu Sprachlern-Apps dienten Fitness Apps bzw. Physical Activity Apps (PA-Apps) als Vergleichsprodukt. Mittels einer Datenbankrecherche
wurden anhand dieser Studien Engagement-Einflussfaktoren extrahiert. Anschließend wurde das Vorhandensein dieser Faktoren bei der Jicki-Sprachlernapp geprüft und deren
Auswirkungen auf das Nutzerverhalten untersucht. Dabei wurden Testnutzer der Jicki-App in Form von Einzelinterviews bezüglich ihrer Intentionen zur Nutzung und ihrer
Erfahrungen mit der App befragt und mögliche Empfehlungen für ein stärkeres Engagement abgeleitet. Basierend auf den Ergebnissen der Datenbankrecherche haben persönliche Einstellungen und Motive, Erwartungen und Zielerreichung, Gewohnheit, technische Funktion und Bedienbarkeit Einfluss auf das Engagement bei PA-Apps. Diese Faktoren konnten durch die Einzelinterviews in der Jicki-App bedingt wiedergefunden
werden.